Known medical laser imagers have been designed with one or two film supplies.
One such imager is designed with a single film supply that utilizes a direct path to feed film from the film cartridge to the optics assembly. Since this machine has just one film supply, a single curved guide can be used to turn the film 90° degrees to re-direct the film towards the optics assembly. Another separate direct path is used to transport the film from the optics assembly to the thermal processor. Another such imager is also designed with a single film supply that utilizes a direct path to feed film from the film cartridge to the optics assembly. Another direct path is used to transport the film from the optics assembly to the thermal processor. A third such imager is designed with two film supplies. The lower film supply feeds film directly from the film cartridge to the optics assembly. The upper film supply feeds film into a transport assembly that feeds the film to the optics assembly. This same transport assembly is also used to feed film from the optics assembly to the processor.
Therefore, the current state-of-the-art in film transport is the use of separate direct feed paths in single film supply imagers. The two-film supply imager has a separate transport assembly that uses the same feed path to transport film from the upper film cartridge to the optics assembly and from the optics assembly to the thermal processor.
There is therefore a need for a film transport system for use in a medical laser imager having three film supplies such that any size film can be fed from any one of the three film supplies downwardly to an imaging assembly, and such that any size film can be fed from the imaging assembly up to a thermal processor located above the three film supplies.